Nowel: Advent & Beyond Ensemble Pro Victoria

• Piers Connor Kennedy (b. 1991): Advent Calendar:
• 1 Kennedy: Advent Calendar 04:38
• Bible Verse: Isaiah 9:
• 2 Verse: Isaiah 9: 2, 6–7 00:33
• Hugo Distler (1908 - 1942): Seven Chorale Variations from Die Weihnachtsgeschichte, Op. 10:
• 3 Distler: Seven Chorale Variations from Die Weihnachtsgeschichte, Op. 10: No. 1, Es ist ein Ros entsprungen 01:10
• Bible Verse: Luke 1:
• 4 Verse: Luke 1: 26–38 01:48
• Hugo Distler: Seven Chorale Variations from Die Weihnachtsgeschichte, Op. 10:
• 5 Distler: Seven Chorale Variations from Die Weihnachtsgeschichte, Op. 10: No. 2, Das Röslein, das ich meine 01:30
• Bible Verse: Luke 1:
• 6 Verse: Luke 1: 39–45 00:44
• Hugo Distler: Seven Chorale Variations from Die Weihnachtsgeschichte, Op. 10:
• 7 Distler: Seven Chorale Variations from Die Weihnachtsgeschichte, Op. 10: No. 3, Meine Seele erhebt/Wir bitten dich 01:58
• Bible Verse: Luke 2:
• 8 Verse: Luke 2: 1–7 00:48
• Hugo Distler: Seven Chorale Variations from Die Weihnachtsgeschichte, Op. 10:
• 9 Distler: Seven Chorale Variations from Die Weihnachtsgeschichte, Op. 10: No. 4, Das Blümelein, so kleine 01:20
• Bible Verse: Luke 2:
• 10 Verse: Luke 2: 8–16 01:01
• Hugo Distler: Seven Chorale Variations from Die Weihnachtsgeschichte, Op. 10:
• 11 Distler: Seven Chorale Variations from Die Weihnachtsgeschichte, Op. 10: No. 5, Die Hirten zu der Stunden 01:11
• Bible Verse: Matthew 2:
• 12 Verse: Matthew 2: 1–12 01:30
• Hugo Distler: Seven Chorale Variations from Die Weihnachtsgeschichte, Op. 10:
• 13 Distler: Seven Chorale Variations from Die Weihnachtsgeschichte, Op. 10: No. 6, Lob, Ehr sei Gott, dem Vater 01:59
• Bible Verse: Luke 2:
• 14 Verse: Luke 2: 25–32 00:52
• Hugo Distler: Seven Chorale Variations from Die Weihnachtsgeschichte, Op. 10:
• 15 Distler: Seven Chorale Variations from Die Weihnachtsgeschichte, Op. 10: No. 7, So singen wir all Amen 01:09
• Bible Verse: John 3:
• 16 Verse: John 3: 16 00:18
• Piers Connor Kennedy: Nowel el el:
• 17 Kennedy: Nowel el el: I. Procession O Emmanuel 00:53
• 18 Kennedy: Nowel el el: II. That lovely lady sat and song 02:52
• 19 Kennedy: Nowel el el: III. Owt of your slepe aryse and wake 01:44
• 20 Kennedy: Nowel el el: IV. This flour is fayre and fresche of heue 03:24
• 21 Kennedy: Nowel el el: V. Puer nobis natus est 02:30
• 22 Kennedy: Nowel el el: VI. Nowel el el 01:56
• 23 Kennedy: Nowel el el: VII. O sisters too 05:13
• 24 Kennedy: Nowel el el: VIII. Of a rose, a lovely rose 02:48
• 25 Kennedy: Nowel el el: IX. When Cryst was born of Mary fre 01:35
• 26 Kennedy: Nowel el el: X. This rose is reed of colour bryght 03:43
• 27 Kennedy: Nowel el el: XI. A babe is borne of hye natewre 02:00
• 28 Kennedy: Nowel el el: XII. Recession: O Emmanuel 00:57
• Herbert Howells (1892 - 1983): A spotless rose:
• 29 Howells: A spotless rose 03:09
• David McGregor (b. 1995): O Oriens:
• 30 McGregor: O Oriens 03:35
• William Byrd (1539/40 - 1623): Lulla, Lullaby:
• 31 Byrd: Lulla, Lullaby 03:24
• Philip W.J. Stopford (b. 1977): Lully, Lulla, Lullay:
• 32 Stopford: Lully, Lulla, Lullay 04:24
• Michael Praetorius (1571 - 1621), Melchior Vulpius (1570 - 1615): Es ist ein Ros entsprungen
• 33 Praetorius, Vulpius: Es ist ein Ros entsprungen 04:45
• Total Runtime 01:11:21

Info zu Nowel: Advent & Beyond

Christmas comes in new and unexpected guises – like last leaf’s fall, in Rowan Williams’s poem Advent Calendar. Following three acclaimed Delphian recordings of Tudor music, Toby Ward and Ensemble Pro Victoria bring fresh, contemporary colours to the seasons of Advent and Christmas; the mood is quiet anticipation, guarded joy, sometimes even fear and uncertainty, as the Virgin – the spotless Rose at the still centre of it all – sings her son to sleep amidst death and persecution. Williams narrates the Nativity story, around which the choir weave Hugo Distler’s searching polyphonic variations; Piers Connor Kennedy’s Nowel el el for harp and just six men’s voices is an intimate companion piece – or contrast – to Britten’s famous carol cycle, and has its first recording here by the group for which it was written.

"This is an exceptional disc in every way. The programme contains a fascinating blend of a little bit of familiar music and a substantial amount of new and/or unfamiliar material. All the music is extremely worthwhile and I count the Distler piece and Piers Connor Kennedy’s Nowell el el as significant discoveries. As for the performances, both the singing and the instrumental playing is immaculate; all the music is vividly communicated. Just as importantly, you’ll go a long way to find a programme that has been more thoughtfully and perceptively constructed. In short, this is a winner on all counts. The presentational side is up to Delphian’s usual top-drawer standards. Producer/engineer Paul Baxter has recorded the performances, as is his wont, in exemplary fashion. The sessions took place in two locations and over a year apart but I felt the sound quality was consistent. One small but telling detail is that when Rowan Williams is delivering his readings, not only can he be very clearly heard but also there’s just a small but very welcome trace of the acoustic round his voice. The booklet essay by Andrew Mellor is perceptive and guides listeners through the music expertly. This album will see you through the Advent and Christmas seasons in a stimulating and very satisfying way." (John Quinn, musicwebinternational.com)

Rowan Williams, speaker
Cecily Beer, harp
Ensemble Pro Victoria
Toby Ward, conductor

Ensemble Pro Victoria
is established as one of the Britain’s finest young early music ensembles (Early Music Review). Founded at Cambridge University in 2015 by Humphrey Thompson (baritone, early music editor) and Toby Ward (artistic director), the ensemble put down roots in the rich tradition of combined historical research and high-level performance, in partnership with their academic adviser, professor Magnus Williamson (Newcastle University).

Ensemble Pro Victoria was awarded joint-first prize in the London International Festival of Early Music Young Ensemble Competition 2020, catapulting them to recognition and subsequent signing with Scotland’s Gramophone award-winning classical label, Delphian Records. Their first professional album, ‘Robert Fayrfax, Music for Tudor Kings and Queens’ was released exactly 500 years since Robert Fayrfax’s death in 2021. Music for Tudor Kings and Queens was critically acclaimed, with reviews in Gramophone magazine, Early Music Review and on Radio 3’s Early Music Show with the great accolade of five stars and the front cover feature of Choir and Organ magazine.

The ensemble made a celebrated Radio 3 debut in 2021 with a reconstruction of Vespers as Fayrfax would have heard it in 1521, broadcast live from the chapel of Hampton Court Palace, and repeated on the day of Fayrfax’s quincentenary.

Recent concerts have included Vocal Music of the English Baroque to the London International Early Music Festival, Fayrfax and his Tudor contemporaries to the Cambridge Early Music Festival and New College, Oxford, and Buxtehude Membra Jesu Nostri to St John’s, Holland Park. The group has expanded forces with instruments a number of times previously to perform Pärt Passio and Bach St John Passion in St Mary’s, Bourne St, Belgravia, and Bach Christmas Oratorio/Monteverdi 1610 Vespers in King’s College Chapel, Cambridge.

In 2021 Ensemble Pro Victoria founded the Harrogate Advent Festival in partnership with Anthony Gray and the church of St Wilfrid, Harrogate. It is hoped the Advent Festival will be a flagship choral festival for the North of England, centred around a programme for young singers and organists in Harrogate and the surrounding area. The 2022 festival falls 24-27th November and includes a number of concerts, recitals, Advent services and workshops for singers.

Ensemble Pro Victoria’s second album with Delphian Records, ‘Tudor Music Afterlives’ follows the posthumous traces and remains of great Catholic music after the Reformation, and will be released in October 2022.

Young classical ensembles receive little central financial support and rely on the generosity of supporters to continue engaging young professionals and developing projects. If you would like to support the work of the ensemble by becoming a Friend of EPV, please visit www.ensembleprovictoria.com/friends. ​

The ensemble benefits from a close relationship with artist Gabriella Morris, who has created stunning pieces of art and design since 2015. Each project sees a new commission inspired by the programme and repertoire. Her commissions can be viewed on our previous events page.

Toby Ward
was born in Wharfedale in 1993. His formative training came as one of the last choristers of Leeds Parish Church (now Minster) in singing and organ with Dr Simon Lindley and David Houlder, before leaving for Gloucester Cathedral under Adrian Partington as a tenor choral scholar. He is currently mentored in conducting and performance practice by Paul Brough as part of his involvement in the musical tradition at St Mary’s, Bourne St., London.

He read music at King’s College, Cambridge with particular focus on early music and continuo alongside a choral scholarship in King’s College Choir under Sir Stephen Cleobury, with whom he toured internationally and performed on BBC radio and television with major solos on the annual Carols from King’s programme. Postgraduate studies in singing with Alison Wells followed at the Royal College of Music prior to the pandemic.

Current posts include organist of the National Musicians Church in the City of London, Praefectus Cantorum of the Grand Priory of England and Tenor Associate Artist of Tenebrae Choir.

He has conducted live on Radio 3 with Ensemble Pro Victoria and at major festivals including the London International Early Music Festival, Cambridge Early Music Festival, and is in demand as a guest conductor, repetiteur and continuo player across the capital.

Known also for inspiring and developing choristers and young singers, Toby has taught the boy choristers of Durham Cathedral, Newcastle cathedral and Westminster Abbey alongside work as a workshop leader for the Tenebrae schools programme, occasional work with London Youth Choir and a happy spell as acting director of the York Chapter House Youth Choir.

Upcoming projects including directing a CD of works by the Victorian great, S.S. Wesley with the Choir of the National Musicians’ Church, also on Delphian Records.

Booklet für Nowel: Advent & Beyond